Watch holder



21, 1936. M. E. WESTERMAN 2,038,152

WATCH HOLDER Filed Dec. 19, 1955 \NVENTOR M E. WESTfE/Wfl/V ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 21, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WATCH HOLDER Max E. Westerman, New York, N. Y.

Application December 19, 1935, Serial No. 55 ,135

7 Claims.

The present invention relates to watch holders of the type in which the holder forms a peripheral flange upon the watch case, extending in the plane of the case.

The holder is preferably made of leather or similar somewhat resilient and flexible material, having an opening therethrough to receive the watch. The watch has a cylindrical case with a flange at each end of the cylinder, at least one of which flanges is adjustable toward the other, so that the holder may be firmly clamped between them.

Obviously the holder must be normally slightly thicker than the cylindrical body of the case so that when clamped between the flanges it will be compressed and tightly gripped.

While leather that is stiff enough for use in such holders is compressible, its compressibility is not sufficient to provide a Wide tolerance and the norrnal thickness of the leather must be kept within comparatively close limits. The adjustable flange is usually formed on the rear face plate of the case which is screwed into the cylindrical body. If the holder is too thick it will be impossible to screw this plate home tightly against the cylinder. On the other hand, if the holder is too thin it will be loose on the case and unsatisfactory for that reason.

Unfortunately leather is not a material that can, as a matter of commercial expediency, be held to an accurate gauge of thickness. Even though they may be cut from the same piece of leather, the holders may vary in thickness considerably beyond permissible limits. Such wide variations involve waste of material and waste of time and labor in fitting the holders to the cases. In addition to this, the cases may also vary in thickness thus adding to the manufacturing difficulties.

An object of the present invention is to overcome these difficulties by providing a holder of leather or like material which at least along the margin of the watch case opening, will be considerably more resiliently compressible than is ordinary solid leather.

A more specific object is to provide a holder formed of lamina that are normally sprung apart at the periphery of the opening. Thus the holder will fit snugly between flanges that may vary considerably in spacing. Also, considerable variations in thickness of the leather may be tolerated without aiiecting the fit of the holder.

With these objects in view and others which will appear hereinafter I shall now describe a preferred embodiment of my invention and will thereafter point out the novelty and scope of the invention in the claims.

In he a co n n d Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a watch fitted with my improved holder;

Fig. 2 is a view in section taken on the line 2 ,2 of Figure 1;

Fig. 3 is a f ace view of the holder with the watch removed; and

Fig. i, is a fragmental view of the holder in transverse section showing the normal flare of the laminae at the margin of thewatch case opening.

The holder comprises a piece IU of leather or other similar material. The holder illustrated is in the form of a ring, but obviously the outer periphery need not necessarily be circular, but may be oval, rectangular, or of any other desired contour. The inner periphery H of the holder is formed to fit closely upon the cylindrical case l2 of the watch l3. A notch I4 is formed in the inner periphery of the holder to clear the crown l5 of the watch. It will be noted that this crown is of a diameter greater than the thickness of the holder so that the crown will protrude slightly from opposite faces of the holder. Hence the watch may be wound or set without removing it from the holder.

The watch case has a flange l6 which laps over the edge of the holder on one face thereof and a flange plate I! is screwed or otherwise secured to the case so that it will lap over the edge of the holder on the opposite face thereof. Thus the watch is held firmly in place within the holder since the latter is gripped snugly between the flanges l6 and H. To increase the compressibility of the holder along its inner periphery it is slit, as indicated at I8, and a cord [9 is tightly wedged in the slit to flare apart the lips or laminae between which the slit is formed. While the holder may be made of a single solid piece of leather with a slit formed therein I prefer to make it of two laminae 20 and 2|, which are stitched together as indicated at 22 adjacent their outer periphery.

When the holder is fitted upon the watch and clamped between the flanges, the opposite faces of the holder are slightly bulged, as clearly shown in Fig. 2. This improves the appearance of the holder and also increases the protection to the watch provided by the holder. The holder is preferably perforated at a suitable point, as indicated at 23, for the attachment of a watch chain, cord or the like.

The term leather as used in the claims is intended to include other materials besides leather which have leather-like qualities of flexibility and resiliency. The term annulus is used in its broad sense to include holders that may have a non-circular outer periphery and even a noncircular inner periphery to fit upon a non-cylindrical watch case.

While I have described a preferred embodiment of my invention this is to be taken as illustrative and not limitative and I reserve the right to make various changes in form, construction and arrangements of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention as pointed out in the claims.

I claim:

1. As an article of manufacture, a watch holder comprising an annulus of leather having an inner periphery adapted to fit upon a watch, the holder comprising a pair of lips along said inner periphery, said lips being resiliently flared apart.

2. As an article of manufacture, a watch holder comprising an annulus of leather having an inner periphery adapted to fit upon a watch, said annulus having a slit along the inner periphery thereof in a plane substantially parallel to a face of the annulus, and means wedged in the slit to flare apart the opposite walls of the slit.

3. As an article of manufacture, a watch holder comprising an annulus of leather having an inner periphery adapted to fit upon a watch, said annulus having a slit along the inner periphery thereof in a plane substantially parallel to a face of the annulus, and a cord wedged in the slit to flare apart the opposite walls of the slit.

4. As an article of manufacture, a watch holder comprising an annulus of leather having an inner periphery adapted to fit upon a watch, said annulus having a slit along the inner periphery thereof in a plane substantially parallel to a face of the annulus, and means wedged in the slit to flare apart the opposite walls of the slit, said annulus being also formed with a notch in its inner periphery to receive a watch crown.

5. As an article of manufacture, a watch holder comprising an annulus of leather having an inner periphery adapted to fit upon a watch, said annulus being formed of a pair of lamina secured together at their outer periphery, and means urging the laminae apart at their inner periphery.

6. As an article of manufacture, a watch holder comprising an annulus of leather having an inner periphery adapted to fit upon a watch, said annuhis being formed of a pair of laminae stitched together adjacent the outer periphery of the holder, and a cord wedged between the lamina and urging the lamina: apart at the inner periphery of the holder.

7. The combination with a watch having a cylindrical case with a flange at each end of the cylinder, of an annular disk-like holder fitted upon the cylinder between the flanges, said holder being formed along its inner periphery with a pair of resilient lips, and means urging said lips apart against the flanges.

MAX E. WESTERMAN. 

